It appears that a Great Sad has descended on some of the supporters in Washington of our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline. From their lips, of course, to god's ears.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said Friday that he is not holding out much hope that President Obama will approve the Keystone XL pipeline. "Though normally a pretty good optimist, I am not overly optimist [sic] that the president will allow the Keystone XL to move forward despite Nebraska's reroute of the pipeline thru their state," Upton said in a live Web chat on Michigan news website Mlive.com where he typed out answers to questions.

Apparently, the dismals have come to chairman Upton and his compatriots because the president appointed John Kerry to be Secretary Of State, and Kerry already has voted against approving the pipeline, and because the president talked about climate change in his inaugural address. Before moving along to what's really going on, can I pause for a moment to ask why every story on this pipeline has to include the requisite amount of superannuated boilerplate? It's like there's a "Debunked Bullshit" function on every keyboard. To wit:

Legislators and industry supporters say the pipeline will bring thousands of jobs, lessen dependence on foreign oil and also help reduce bottlenecks in shipping oil from North Dakota's booming Bakken region. "Canada has made it pretty clear that they will be almost quadrupling their production before the end of the decade and this oil sand will find a mkt -whether it be here, China or overseas," Upton wrote. "Without the pipeline, a good sized volume is now being transported by rail--silly not to build a pipeline."

The jobs numbers have been a joke for months. (Even TransCanada, which is building the pipeline, walked one of their initial estimates back.) And the notion that we have to build the pipeline because the oil from the tar sands "will reach the mkt" anyway is arrant nonsense. The oil is just as liable to go to China if we refine it at the end of a pipeline in Texas, as it would be if the Canadians ship it from Vancouver, which they don't want to do, and may not be able to do anyway. It isn't like we own the oil just because we let it run through the center of our country.

What will happen if the president and Secretary Kerry put the kibosh on the pipeline is going to be the mother of all hissy fits. The pipeline is an article of faith on the Republican right, not because it will necessarily improve this country's energy policy, but because refusing to build it would be a triumph for almost everyone the Republican right hates, and that hate is what propels conservative politics. At this point, despite all the foolishness we're hearing about the "civil war" among Republicans, hatred of their enemies, real or imagined, in the last animating principle of the conservative movements, and the howls will be deafening. Al Gore, of course, will remain fat, and a hypocrite because...al Jazeera! In any case, someone get chairman Upton a cookie.